KINGSTON - A Red Hook man who forced a woman to swallow an abortion pill and strangled her is facing felony charges, police say. Thomas Pfeiffer, 44, was arrested Wednesday after Ulster County Sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call that came in with no voice from a Rosendale home. An investigation found Pfeiffer was having a fight with a woman and during the dispute he strangled her and forced her swallow an abortion pill, police say. The woman had injuries to her back and throat and was sent to HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, where she was treated and released.

A rookie cop working the most dangerous beat in the city killed a man in an unlit housing-project stairwell in Brooklyn — firing off an “accidental” shot that hit a young father in the chest, authorities said Friday. “It was a pitch-black hallway,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said of the Thursday-night shooting at East New York’s Louis Pink Houses. “The deceased is a total innocent.” -snip- With his gun in his left hand and a flashlight in his right, Liang entered the stairwell at the same time Akai Gurley, 28, and his girlfriend, Melissa Butler, walked into the same stairwell...

Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School. The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as "pansexual" and "genderqueer." Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date.